Intrepid Travelers Complete Amazing Feat

I have always been a big fan of road trips. I've lived in many different states, so I have been able to take in a lot of sights all around the country. Jack Kerouac was my biggest influence as a writer, and I could always relate to the On the Road mentality.

When you travel by car, you are in a state of suspended animation to some extent. You are no longer where you were, and you haven't yet arrived at your destination. This results in a certain sense of freedom as you transition between definitions of yourself.

In all, I have been in every one of the 48 contiguous United States with two exceptions: Maine and Vermont. If I knew that I was going to travel as much as I did, I would have definitely gotten to these two states while I was going to college in Boston, but 46 ain't bad.

Without question, I have logged a lot of miles on the road. I had a very reliable Toyota Corolla for a number of years; when I sold it the car had over 220,000 miles on it.

Though I am a bona fide road tripper, I certainly cannot compare with a married couple who have gotten a lot of mileage out of their 1999 Dodge Intrepid. The car was discontinued by the company after the 2004 model year, but this particular specimen has been able to hang with the best of them.

Jennifer and Jon Riehl have an insatiable appetite for automotive adventures. I have been in a lot of states, but I have just driven through many of them. The Riehls have taken things to an entirely different level. They have actually visited every county in the lower 48 states.

How many counties are we talking about? The exact figure is 3108, and that is a lot of driving. The Intrepid has 540,000 miles on it; the car had 70,000 miles on the odometer when Jon Riehl purchased it back in 2002.

They want to visit all the counties in Hawaii and Alaska as well, and they have already crossed some Alaska counties off the list. On their wedding trip to the Arctic Circle, they covered 15,000 miles of ground in just 38 days. This would have gotten them into the Guinness Book of World Records if they had jumped through the appropriate hoops at the time, but it never occurred to them.

This is an amazing story, and it gets you to thinking that you may want to look for an old Dodge Intrepid survivor if you want to get yourself some basic transportation that will stand the test of time.